For the SFS, the departments of arts and sciences gave a body blow as their popularity seemed to have dipped.

punjabUpdated: Sep 08, 2017 14:25 IST

Shub Karman Dhaliwal Hindustan Times, Chandigarh

Data says that, while the NSUI held its own in its strongholds, the SFS failed to hold its fort.(Anil Dayal/HT)

Division of votes — surprises and shocks from several departments — meant that not only did the NSUI manage to win the elections but also defeated the crowd favourites SFS by a significant margin.

The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), the largest I terms of votes, saw a total of 1,469 being polled, of which 725 votes were bagged by Lucknow boy of ABVP Avinash Pandey who belongs to the UIET. Last year, it was a stronghold of the Akali Dal wing Student Organisation of India (SOI). The rest of the votes got fragmented here.

For the SFS, worse, the departments of arts and sciences gave a body blow as their popularity seemed to have dipped. Again, the votes were fragmented as the election became a seven-cornered contest. For instance, last year the department of botany saw the SFS getting over 75 votes which this year were reduced to 37 out of 181. On the contrary, the NSUI got 57 votes here despite never having earlier been prominent here.

Another pointer to the SFS’s failure is how its presidential candidate Hassanpreet managed only an eight-vote lead in her own department of physics. She got a mere 110 votes of 315 polled while the NSUI improved its performance to get to 102.

The SFS was not able to make a mark in big departments such as the University institute of Legal Studies (UILS), University Institute of Applied Management Sciences (UIAMS), and the dental college.

From the combined 1,647 votes of the UILS (five-year courses) and the department of laws, the SFS managed to get only 348. Here, another spoiler was at play. The SOI had fielded its candidate from the UILS itself, in Harman Lubana, who got 448 (403 at UILS alone), while the NSUI secured 433 from both law departments.

The NSUI got a 101-vote lead from the dental college that had polled 142 votes alone. The SFS got 41 here, out of a total 390. NSUI’s winning presidential candidate Jashan Kamboj got 215 votes out of 280 polled from his own department, the UIAMS on South Campus. Here, the SFS got just 10.

At University Business School, the NSUI got 87 out of the 240 polled, while SFS got 35.

At the UICET, considered a stronghold of the SFS, the party led with 167 out of the 617 votes polled. But it was far from game-changing. At least three other parties spoiled its show with getting over 100 votes.

Data says that, while the NSUI held its own in its strongholds, the SFS failed to hold its fort, also because too many candidates fragmented the votes in key departments.